June 12, 2007

Wait, 'Knocked Up' is about someone who doesn't get an abortion?

Mireya Navarro of the New York Times is the latest to weigh the political ramifications of the fact that the lead female characters in “Knocked Up” and “Waitress” opt not to have abortions despite their less-than-ideal relationships with the babies’ fathers.

Navarro writes:

“[B]oth movies go out of their way to sidestep real life. Nearly two-thirds of unwanted pregnancies end in abortion, data from federal surveys shows. Yet Jenna in ‘Waitress’ is more likely to ponder selling the baby than to consider having the procedure. And Alison [from ‘Knocked Up’], who has just been promoted to her dream job as an on-camera television personality and asked to lose 20 pounds, is torn over whether to keep the man, not the baby.”

There’s certainly some truth in the notion that having a baby is less likely to turn off a significant segment of the audience than aborting it. And it’s true that the word “abortion” isn’t uttered on screen in these films; euphemisms are substituted instead, such as when one “Knocked Up” character says the relevant word “rhymes with ‘shmashmortion.’ ”

Then again, that crack is a dig at another character too squeamish to say “abortion” in the first place. Many people do prefer to use euphemisms such as “take care of it” rather than to utter the clinical term.

But more to the point of Navarro's complaint: Oh, come on.

“Knocked Up” is a comedy about a young woman who gets, yes, knocked
up, and she must navigate the minefields of pregnancy and parenthood
with a mismatched partner she barely knows. That’s the premise.

Give Katherine Heigl’s character an abortion, and, sure, that might
be hilarious – check that, I can’t imagine one way that would be
hilarious – but you’d have no movie. And “Knocked Up” is an excellent movie, the year’s
best comedy so far. I saw it again last weekend, and the funniest stuff
isn’t even the most outrageous material; it’s what rings painfully true.

Does choosing this premise for a comedy make it inherently
conservative or anti liberal? Navarro, after all, writes that “many
conservative bloggers have claimed ‘Knocked Up’ as an anti-choice
movie, in part because the movie never presents abortion as a serious
option.” (Actually it is discussed as a serious option, but you know
she won’t get one because you’re watching a comedy called “Knocked Up.”
By the way, I bet the conservative bloggers didn’t use the phrase
“anti-choice.”)

Or is comedy a matter of what’s true and funny, thus transcending
the everyday political? I’ll say the latter and maintain my liberal
credentials while guiltlessly laughing over “Knocked Up.”

Similarly “Waitress” is a character-driven dramedy about a
small-town pie-making waitress, Jenna (Keri Russell), who gets pregnant
by her good-for-nothing husband, has an affair with her obstetrician
and learns to assert her own self-worth. OK, maybe the late writer-director
Adrienne Shelly could have given Jenna an affair with her abortionist
instead, but then they wouldn’t have had nearly as many appointments
fraught with humorous sexual tension.

My writer friend James Finn Garner (of “Politically Correct
Bedtime Stories” fame) has written a just-released book called “Recut
Madness: Favorite Movies Retold for Your Partisan Pleasure.”
It imagines Red State versions of some movies (“The Wizard of Oz,”
“An Inconvenient Truth”) and Blue State versions of others (“A
Clockwork Orange,” “Forrest Gump”). In the Blue State “Casablanca,” for
instance, Capt. Renault can’t round up the usual suspects without
stepping into a “profiling” quagmire.

The book is intended as parody, but reality may be closer than he realized.

Alison does make a choice in the movie: she chooses to have the baby. Without it, there's no movie. If she agonized over making the decision, it wouldn't be "Knocked Up," it'd be an after school special. Or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
For the Times chick to imply that Alison's choice is anti-choice is as stupid as the pro-lifers claiming you have to be on their side if you have any kids.

That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard (this morning at least). These movies are written to be about women having babies. That's the whole plotline to begin with. Believe me when I say I'm pro-choice, I just wish people who want to make a big deal about it would use their time more effectively writing about the actual problems facing women in this situation rather than weakening their cause with this kind of drivel.

Isn't this the point of being pro-choice? She has the freedom to choose for herself, and she makes the best decision for her. As soon as you start judging the choice you become as bad as the anti-choice folks. Pro-choice is just what it sounds like, the freedom to make your own choice, or even make a movie about it.

The "Waitress" has an "affair" with her doctor? I don't think so...I believe that from the perspective of medical ethics, this is a matter of "harassment" etc. regardless of who initiated the tryst. I haven't seen the film - is this serious lapse of professionalism on the part of the doctor dealt with in any sort of realistic manner?

As to "KU" - it seems that this is a prime example of what the too-much-missed Roger Ebert calls the "Idiot Plot." Meaning that the whole movie wouldn't take place if the characters hadn't acted cluelessly in the first place.

"Knocked Up" isn't pro-life in the way that "40 Year Old Virgin" wasn't pushing a saving yourself for marriage agenda. It's just a movie! I'm as pro-choice as they come, and I thought this movie was just silly fun.

There is a scene where 2 of the roommates go back and forth presenting pretty much radical opposite views on abortion. If people care about the political standing of a movie, that scene should be what they use as their base, namely that Knocked Up doesn't want to make a stand. If a movie starts with a conception and then ends 15 minutes later with an abortion and life goes on, then there's not much to the movie so why bother making it? It is only a movie after all.

Hey, maybe everyone ought to loosen up. The article is actually a pretty thoughtful piece, and not a one-sided screed, about how Hollywood characters often tend not to act like "real people," and what that means in the greater scheme.

Some folks just take the fun out of life, don't they? I haven't seen the movie because I normally don't enjoy that kind of prurient nonsense, but if it is worth you watching twice, it may warrant at least one viewing from me.
As a card carrying 'right wing extremist' I suspect Navarro's agnst (or is it bathos?) is caused the decreasing amount of attention abortion advocates have been getting lately.

Wow. I have never been so disgusted in my life. People are UPSET that the character didn't selfishly murder her helpless, unborn child to make her own life easier? I find her choice refreshing and positive. Perhaps it sends a better message than "go ahead and get knocked up and kill it. No big deal." Maybe if abortion wasn't an option, people wouldn't be so careless in the first place.

Oh, and Dinne, conservative people don't always wait until marriage, they just respect human life at all stages, and choose other options, such as adoption, to take care of their "problems."

I am a pro-choice liberal, and I went to see the movie with my wife. At no time did I think there was a pro-choice or anti-choice message, and I am hypersensitive to political undertones (just ask my wife). I just thought it was a fun movie, and Katherine Heigl is damn cute. And I fully agree that pro-choice does NOT mean pro-abortion. It means a woman can make her own choice about her own body without jackbooted government thugs interfering with a personal decision. Isn't that position fully consistent with conservative principles? Oh. Wait. Conservative principles is an oxymoron.

Actually, AG, some conservative people oppose abortion until they find themselves (or their daughter finds herself) in a difficult situation, then they decide that they (or their daughter) are an exception, and they head off to the abortion clinic, preferably in another town or state, so their neighbors or friends don't find out. Afterwards, they once again oppose abortion, at least for other people. After all, they had a very good reason to make an exception in their own case.

I've read the stuff you mentioned regarding the lead "taking care of" the pregnancy. I don't think the filmed aimed to be political so much as to appease all audiences. I did have a little bit of an issue though, as a working mom, with how long it took for Heigl's character to break the news to her boss. I don't think that helped the young career women out there make their choice of career vs. family any easier. Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing a silly, yet good comedy movie.

I'm sure that pro-life folks wouldn't like being called "anti-choice" any more than pro-choice folks would like being called "anti-life."

Joking aside, let's be mindful of what the abortion debate is about:

Pro-choice says that the fetus is not a human being and that the mother's life, or quality of life, should be the main, or only, consideration on whether or not to abort the pregnancy.

Pro-life says that the fetus is, in fact, a human being, and choosing to abort is choosing to kill that human life.

Most comedies played to a wide audience are probably not going to take a strong stand on the issue either way, not only to avoid alienating a large segment of the population but also avoid vociferous negative criticism from that segment.

i think knocked up is about choice - and the woman in the movie chose freely and openly about keeping the baby. that's what the message is and what's important. neither view was skewed. it was great to see a strong, smart woman making a choice. and it was a hillarious movie to boot!

Oh my gosh - who is silly enough to think that movies such as Knocked Up and Waitress are political or moral platforms?

For pete's sake; I cannot even believe this is a topic!

I'm looking forward to seeing Knocked Up and I loved, loved, loved Waitress and will be going again soon. Adrienne Shelly was an amazing actress and director; her murder was an extremely heartbreaking shock. There's your real life issue - not a movie.

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